US employers add 115K jobs in April another surprisingly strong report despite Iran war

Hiring was surprisingly strong in April for the second month in a row, signaling the labor market is withstanding pressures from higher energy costs amid the Iran war for now.US employers added 115,000 jobs in April – about twice the amount analysts had expected, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday.The unemployment rate remained steady at 4.3%.“The economy is so much better than what the doom crew has been saying,” Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer for Northlight Asset Management, said in a note Friday.“There are a lot of headwinds – higher oil prices, sticky inflation and higher-for-longer interest rates – and yet the labor market is adding jobs, GDP is growing and corporate profits are expanding at a rapid pace.”Analysts said the upbeat report will likely keep the Federal Reserve on hold when it comes to interest-rate cuts as they shift their attention to the impact of surging energy costs on inflation.Revisions to the previous two months lowered total job growth by 16,000 jobs.Job growth in March was revised upward to 185,000.

February’s losses increased to 156,000.But results from month-to-month have been especially volatile, meaning the last three months have averaged just 48,000 jobs – what is usually considered an anemic pace of job growth.Under the surface, the labor market showed some signs of strain.While the unemployment rate remained steady, the number of unemployed workers rose and the labor force actually shrank – a result of President Trump’s intense migrant deportation agenda.The number of people employed part-time for economic reasons – meaning they couldn’t secure full-time work or had their hours slashed – jumped by 445,000 to 4.9 million in April.Job-seekers are facing lower demand from employers as artificial intelligence helps companies cut costs and economic uncertainty keeps firms from hiring, creating one of the harshest job markets for recent college graduates in years. But layoffs have also re...